BIOGRAPHY

Research Focus: Public Debt, Public Finance

Insook Lee received PhD in Economics from University of California, Berkeley, after obtaining the degree of Master in Public Policy from the School of Public Policy and Management, Korea Development Institute, and BA in Anthropology from Seoul National University. She was an Assistant Professor at the HSBC Business School, Peking University before joining Bay Area International Business School. Her major research field is Public Finance (a.k.a Public Economics), with focus on public debt, public pension and taxation. On these topics, she has been publishing numerous research articles at internationally acknowledged journals such as Applied Economics and Economic Research. She had served as co-editor of British Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, the reviewer of Advances in Economics and Business, and chairman of the international body of the Korea Pension Association.

Education: Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA

RESEARCH

Publications:

[17] “Co-Movement of Steady-State Government Debt and Household Debt” Forthcoming at Singapore Economic Review [SSCI]

[16] “Wage Discrimination and Tax Progressivity” Forthcoming at Singapore Economic Review [SSCI]

[15] “Optimal Progressivity of Public Pension Benefit and Labor Income Tax” Forthcoming at Review of Public Economics [SSCI]

[14] “Individualism Culture and Tax Progressivity” Economic Research, 36(3): 2185793, 2023. [SSCI]

[13] “Technological Progress and Optimal Income Taxation” Economic Research, 36(2): 2142828, 2023. [SSCI]

[12] “Revisiting the Meltzer-Richard Hypothesis of Pre-Tax Income Inequality and Income Tax Rate” Applied Economics, 54(53), pp. 6108-6115, 2022. [SSCI]

[11] “Does Political Polarization Lead to a Rise in Government Debt?” Review of Public Economics, 241(2), pp.3-25, 2022. [SSCI]

[10] “To Cap or Not To Cap on Public Pension” (with Timothy Lu and Qian Chen) Applied Economics Letters, 29(9), pp. 812-816, 2022. [SSCI]

[9] “Conditional Effect of Government Debt on Household Debt” Applied Economics 54(24), pp. 2759-2777, 2022. [SSCI]

[8] “Idiosyncratic Risk and Acyclically Increasing Public Debt” Singapore Economic Review 66(5), pp. 1177-1203, 2021. [SSCI]

[7] “Does Outlawing Mandatory Retirement Reduce Public Pension Benefit Claim?” Applied Economics, 53(20), pp. 2322-2336, 2021. [SSCI]

[6] “Trade-Off Effect of Pay-As-You-Go Public Pension on Economic and Welfare Volatility” Review of Public Economics, 233(2), pp. 117-140, 2020. [SSCI]

[5] “Bequest and Moral Hazard in Family” Singapore Economic Review, 65(2), pp. 533-550, 2020. [SSCI]

[4] “The Effect of Death Tax on Labor Supply of Donors: Evidence from TRA97” Applied Economics, 51(54), pp. 5843-5855, 2019. [SSCI]

[3] “Income Tax Evasion Responses to Tax Rate and Tax Enforcement Rate” Advances in Economics and Business, 6(4), pp. 269-280, 2018.

[2] “Is Social Expenditure Responsible for Recent Rise in Public Debt in OECD Countries?” Applied Economics Letters, 25(1), pp. 43-46, 2018. [SSCI]

[1] “Possibility of Leapfrogging Style Economic Reform in North Korea and the Roles of Foreign Capital” (with Keun Lee and Byung-Yeon Kim) Journal of Contemporary Asia, 39(2), pp. 279-294, 2009. [SSCI]

Referee Services:

Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Applied Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Journal of Economics, Advances in Economics and Business, Policy Studies

Invited Conference Presentations:

16th Western Economic Association International Conference, Shanghai (2020); Econometric Society Asian Meeting (2017); Royal Economic Society Junior Researcher Symposium (2017); 12th Western Economic Association International Conference, Singapore (2016)

TEACHING

Courses Taught at Beijing Normal University

Macroeconomics and Public Economics

Courses Taught at Peking University

Mathematics for Economics, Taxation and Business Strategies, Social Insurance, Political Institutes and Economic Development, Research Methodology of Economics, and Public Finance